Entertainment

Skype wants to make saying "happy birthday" on Facebook more interesting than a generic wall post. The company is launching a Facebook app on Tuesday that allows its fans to instead post a birthday song performed by a favorite band — and sing along, if they so choose.

This is the first time that Skype, which has grown its Facebook Page from 1 million to 5 million fans in the past year, will be launching a social media campaign.

The campaign is intended to promote Skype Group Video Calling, a premium feature that launched in January. Bands such as Imogen Heap, The Parlotones, Bowling For Soup, Charlie Simpson, Scarlet Grey, Body Language, Kill The Young, CSS, and Ash recorded original versions of Happy Birthday using Skype Group Chat. When Skype fans launch the app, they can choose to record themselves in an additional group video chat window, and recipients of the greeting receive one free week of the service.

Musical messages can be customized with a personal message and posted on Facebook walls, embedded on websites and sent anywhere else via unique URL.

Skype may be new to social media campaigns — it usually uses its Facebook page to post company news and stories from users — but creating an alternative happy birthday Facebook post was a smart move. Facebook users so often flood friends' walls with birthday wishes that the social network designed a way to better organize them last year. One Slate writer celebrated his birthday on Facebook three times in one month and still received enthusiastic happy birthday messages. It wouldn't surprise us if Facebook users embrace Skype's alternative.

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